


Surrender

by Hereisacreativeusername



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, I'm Bad At Tagging, Light Angst, Post-Episode: e067-069 Story and Song Parts 1-3, Swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-25
Updated: 2020-05-25
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:35:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,941
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24375895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hereisacreativeusername/pseuds/Hereisacreativeusername
Summary: The thing no one ever talks about when it comes to a glorious victory is the surrender that comes afterwards. Once the battle has been won and the healers have tended the wounded. Once the dead have been counted and the victory songs have been sung. Once the war cries have quieted. Once all of this has passed, the victorious must learn to surrender to what comes after.Taako adjusts to life after the Day of Story and Song and struggles with the return of some unwelcome memories. I just want him to be happy and mentally healthy.
Relationships: Barry Bluejeans/Lup, Carey Fangbattle/Killian, Kravitz/Taako (The Adventure Zone)
Comments: 11
Kudos: 46





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't written fan fiction in about six years but I finished Balance and I loved it so much that it reignited my desire to write and explore characters and junk. This was supposed to be a short story about Taako and Angus but I started writing and next thing I knew I had fourteen pages. Oops. Also I don't have a beta reader so there are likely a few typos, grammatical errors, and divergences from canon. Hope you enjoy!

The thing no one ever talks about when it comes to a glorious victory is the surrender that comes afterwards. Once the battle has been won and the healers have tended the wounded. Once the dead have been counted and the victory songs have been sung. Once the war cries have quieted. Once all of this has passed, the victorious must learn to surrender to what comes after. And what comes after is a sense of quiet and calm that can be difficult to settle into when you have only known war and running and chasing and battle for so many years.

Taako had yearned for a rest for so long. He had pictured time and time again how easy it would be to just close his eyes and give up in the face of so much hardship. But now that the fight was over and the hardship as he knew it had passed, resting was not as easy as he had imagined. He saw this in his companions as well. In how Magnus paced and in how Merle fidgeted with his beard. In how Davenport buried himself in work. In how Barry muttered to himself in a way that Taako suspected others found endearing but that he himself found—okay so maybe he also found it a little endearing but don’t tell anyone. 

The best remedy to this restlessness is time and the best way to wait out that time is by filling it with things to do. Fortunately for Taako, he had so much lost time to make up for. He and Lup made a point of filling as much of their day with one another as they could. If she wasn’t with Barry, one had to simply follow the smell of sauce simmering or the somewhat manic sound of two elves giggling to find the pair of them. 

It wasn’t just that Taako felt good to have her back. It was that it had felt horrible when she was away and he hadn’t even fucking realized it. It was like going through life with your right eye closed only to one day realize you could actually _open it_ and suddenly half of the world you didn’t even know was missing just opened up. It was like he had been tapping out half of a beat or singing half of a duet and now— _finally_ —the second half was being performed in perfect harmony. It was like he could never finish a goddamn Fantasy Costco sized bottle of Grey Goose without feeling sick and now he understood he was never meant to finish the whole thing by himself because he was supposed to be sharing it with Lup. It was over one such bottle that she finally opened up to him about being trapped in the Umbra Staff. 

“It fucking sucked” Lup muttered, eyeing the staff suspiciously and giving it a little kick to the side “I mean in a weird way it was kind of awesome because I knew the only reason I was trapped was because I’m so good at magic that I couldn’t even get  _ myself _ out but… But everything else about it sucked.”

“Yeah, you’re a regular Icarus,” Taako rolled his eyes dramatically but leaned in. Lup hadn’t talked much about her time in the Umbra Staff before this. 

“Well what’s life without a little hubris?” she sighed “I’m glad you figured it out eventually. Even if I had to literally spell it out for you.”

“Sorry I didn’t get to it sooner. Maybe next time you’re stuck in a magic umbrella you could give me a little more to go on than three letters and a burnt plate of macarons”

“Hey that’s not fair,” she said, crossing her arms, “I also tried to kill your boyfriend.” Lup laughed at Taako’s raised eyebrow and leaned back in her armchair “I could have done worse. It was weird watching you run around doing everything without me though.”

“It wasn’t really without you.” He picked up the near empty bottle and poured them each the last few drops. He measured the glasses next to one another, holding them up eye level and squinting, then handed her the slightly-less-full glass. She made a face but took it from him anyway because he had poured and she was too tired to care. “Hey as long as we’re on the subject, tell me what you did to that body-snatcher the staff absorbed in Wonderland. I want the grisly details.”

“I am absolutely not drunk enough for that yet.”

“Lucky for you,” he pulled out another bottle from his bag and handed it to her, “we’ve got time.”


	2. Chapter 2

Taako thought about that night with Lup a lot. He felt horrible knowing that she had to sit trapped in the Umbra Staff watching not only himself but her other friends live life without her. To watch them struggle and fail and hurt, not even knowing that she existed. Still, it felt right knowing that she had been there trying to protect him in any way she could despite being trapped. When he had said that it wasn’t really without her, he had meant it. As kids, Lup was all he had. The absolute only person he knew without a doubt that he could trust. And though his circle had expanded throughout his journey, Taako knew that he would not have made it out of childhood without her. Even now, after all was said and done, Taako knew that the only person he truly trusted with his whole being was his twin. Having her back felt so right. 

In the days following The Day of Story and Song, memories continued to come back. Over a century of past experiences don’t just return all at once without doing some serious damage. Lucretia had guided them through the main points of their hundred year journey but, with The Hunger closing in, they had only had so much time to talk before they had to act.

As a result, there were still many things missing. As the days passed, Taako would often stumble upon a trigger and find himself seized with a sudden feeling or intense flashback flooding his senses. He saw it happen to Magnus and Merle a few times too, though their memories seemed to primarily consist of events that had taken place over their century running from The Hunger. Taako was unfortunate in that he had lost so much from before that time. He had forgotten so much more and that meant he had hundreds— thousands— more memories to sift through. 

Sure, he got flashes from his time aboard The Starblaster. But those were so much easier to handle. The other ones were undeniably harder. Sometimes complete memories that had been wiped clean would return and sometimes details from memories that he had never lost completely but that had replaced Lup with static and haze would suddenly clear up.

These childhood flashbacks were particularly annoying because as a general rule Taako wanted to forget his childhood as much as possible. He sure as hell didn’t want an onslaught of flashbacks assaulting him at random when he was just trying to get on with his goddamn life. They weren’t all unpleasant. But even the happy memories that returned were painful because they reminded him of how different things could have been for him. Taako found that the flashbacks tended to come up primarily when he was alone or idle and came across something to trigger it so he kept himself busy as much as possible in the days following their final battle.

Sometimes he third-wheeled with Lup and Barry when they didn’t need alone time. He liked seeing his sister happy and Barry was _such_ a nerd but he clearly loved Lup with so much intensity it was sickening to be around some days. And she made him happy too, of course, because she was the most fantastic person in existence and could make anyone happy and Barry was lucky enough to be the person she chose to do that with.

As much as he enjoyed watching them interact, Taako tried to give them their alone time as often as he could. Lup always invited him out—Taako suspected she could tell how badly things were impacting him—but he’d wave them off so they could enjoy their alone time. 

“Jeez, Lulu,” he’d say “stop breathing down my neck. I know I’m the life of the party but you and Barold need to learn how to have fun without me! Fly the coop!” and Lup would roll her eyes in an attempt to hide her concern and Taako would playfully shoo her out of the room to hide his fear of being left alone and neither of them would point out that trying to hide feelings was pointless because they knew each other too goddamn well.

Taako knew they’d have to talk about it eventually but right now they both had too much going on. Lup had so much of the world to see and so many things to do after spending 12 years trapped in the umbrastaff and he didn’t want to keep her from them. Even if every time she left, he was terrified she wouldn’t come back. But it wasn’t her responsibility to keep him sane. 

Kravitz was particularly busy in the weeks following the Day of Story and Song. The time that the Raven Queen had spent away combined with the influx of deaths from the havoc of the battle meant he had a lot of work to do. Still, Kravitz made it a priority to slip away and spend as much time with Taako as he could, which wasn’t much but went a long way to occupy Taako’s mind.

The two would sit together and laugh and exchange stories and Taako would make him taste new recipes. Kravitz would sit and watch him sing off key and twirl around the kitchen while he added pinches and dashes and never measured a single thing. Kravitz typically didn’t dance but he let the elf drag him into one every once in a while because his laugh was absolutely infectious when he was being spun around the room and Kravitz would do just about anything to hear it. 

Kravitz was also the only person Taako felt comfortable dropping his disguise self spell around (gods know he couldn’t drop it around Lup—couldn’t have her walking around thinking she was the better looking twin, after all). At first, he still kept it up most of the time but when he did drop it, Kravitz would always assure him that he was beautiful and worth loving and Taako never got tired of hearing it. Eventually, Taako stopped using it when it was just the two of them and would only pop it back on if someone else walked into the room. It felt nice to give himself a break. To free up the part of his mind typically occupied by the disguise. 

Taako spent time with Magnus and Merle too, of course. He knew they weren’t having an easy time, either and the three of them spent so many nights helping one another stay awake. Pretending it was for fun and not because they were afraid of what memories were waiting for them to fall asleep. One night the three of them had a reunion with Robbie and drank some potion he’d cooked up. Taako didn’t really remember that night but he wasn’t too sure he wanted to anyway—at least this was a memory that he knew was going to stay forgotten. 

The only person Taako didn’t spend his time with was Lucrecia. He knew she wasn’t a bad person. He knew that she was just trying to protect everyone. But there were some things he just wasn’t capable of forgiving. And making him forget that there were people who cared about him? Forcing him to go back to a place where he felt lonely and couldn’t trust anyone? Making him lose any positive memories he had of his childhood—because let’s be honest the only happy memories he had from his childhood were because of Lup? He couldn’t forgive that. 

Taako hadn’t just lost that century like the others; he’d lost half of himself. Such a large percentage of his life was gone. And those memories that had been left were either not ones worth remembering or had the best part taken out. It was like striking out all of the pleasant scenes from a book until all that’s left is tragedy and expecting the essence of the story to stay the same. 

In life, when things seem dark and hard, people are able to continue on because of their positive memories. Those past moments of light—however few and far between—are what fuel us to keep moving forward. There is a promise that there can be a good future because we know that things have been good before in our pasts. We move forward hoping our luck will circle back around and we’ll find that feeling of happiness again.

When Lucretia took Taako’s memories of Lup, she took all of his moments of light. All that was left for him were memories of sadness and darkness and that made it so goddamn hard to move forward. What was the point of sticking it out and making it to tomorrow when every single yesterday was nothing but grief and despair? The years before he met Merle and Magnus were fucking dark. And to be honest, the year he’d spent with them hadn’t been much brighter. 

Now, though, he remembered the bonds he’d made on the Starblaster. It had taken him a long time aboard that ship to lower his defenses and once he finally did his eyes were opened to how nice it was to have more than just one person in his corner. He remembered how amazing it felt to see Lup open up to people other than just himself, too. They had both finally been given the family they never had. And that had been taken from him. All of that light. All of that love. That had been ripped from him until he thought himself incapable of loving anything. Not only that, but he thought himself incapable of _being_ loved. How could he be expected to simply move on? The others had chosen to forgive—and Taako was fine with that; it wasn’t his decision to make for anyone but himself. But when it did come to making that decision, Taako had no hesitation. Forsake. Forsake every time.

That was his dilemma today. 

The others were all getting together for a family dinner on the Starblaster (“for old time’s sake!” Merle had said). Taako was invited, naturally, but he absolutely could not bring himself to see Lucretia yet. Some day he’d be civil, sure. But he knew he wouldn’t be able to control his tongue around her just yet and he didn’t want to ruin the night—Taako didn’t ruin parties. He started them.

So he told the others he’d be sitting this one out. And it hurt, which he knew was illogical because he had been explicitly invited and Lup and Magnus had practically begged him to join them. And he was the only one preventing himself from going. _A_ _nd_ he couldn’t exactly expect everyone else to change their plans around and exclude one of their friends just to accommodate him. But it still hurt. 

When the evening in question came, Taako waved goodbye to Merle and Magnus as they left their shared apartment with a “Have fun! Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!”

“Well that leaves a pretty short list,” Merle remarked.

“Are you sure you don’t want to come? It’ll be fun! We have a ton of booze!” Magnus threw it out as a last ditch effort to get him to join. Typical.

“Hard pass; I’ve got booze here and I don’t have to share it with any of you.”

“Okay.” Magnus looked somewhat disappointed but followed Merle out. “If you change your mind don’t hesitate to stop by though!”

“Yeah sure thing,” Taako waved his hand loftily in Magnus’s direction, already turning to walk away “If it blows feel free to stop back here” Taako heard the door click shut behind him and sighed, walking into the kitchen. Baking would take his mind off of things. He reached into the linen closet and pulled out an old apron, dropping his disguise self spell as he pulled the garment over his head and tied it behind him in a quick bow. He caught his reflection in the window and grimaced, pulling the curtains. 

Lemon bars. Lemon bars sounded great. 

He started melting the butter while he pulled out the other ingredients. Sugar. Flour. Vanilla. Salt. Eggs. Lemon.

The trick to a good shortbread was to not overwork the dough. Taako would rather die than have a tough shortbread. He’d made that mistake once back when he and Lup were living with his aunt and… and…

Butter. Sugar. Flour. Vanilla. Salt. Eggs. Lemon.

He started pressing the crust into his pan and repeated the list in his head. Butter. Sugar. Flour. Vanilla. Salt. Eggs. Lemon. He put it in the oven to parbake and slammed the door a little too hard. Butter. Sugar. Flour. Vanilla. Salt. Eggs. Lemon. Okay. Good. Start the filling. 

The trick to a good lemon filling was to heat the lemons first to make it easier to extract the juice. That way you’re not missing out on any flavor. That was a trick he had learned during their year on—Taako slammed a hand down on the counter. Butter. Sugar. Flour. Vanilla. Salt. Eggs. Lemon. He whisked the ingredients together, sending some sloshing over the side of the bowl. Butter. Sugar. Flour. Vanilla. Salt. Eggs. Lemon. He took a deep breath. Okay. Okay. He was fine. 

Butter. Sugar. Flour. Vanilla. Salt. Eggs. Lemon.

Taako retrieved the shortbread from the oven and began pouring his mixture over the still steaming crust. He put it back into the oven and started scrubbing out the bowls in the sink. Butter. Sugar. Flour. Vanilla. Salt. Eggs. Lemon. Good. Great. Okay. 

By the time they were ready to come out of the oven, Taako was feeling perfectly fine. See, he could spend time by himself! He was fuckin great at it! Who gives a shit!

He left the pan out to give the bars a chance to cool before he sliced them. He was great at being alone, truly. But maybe he should go around and see if anyone wanted a lemon bar once they were ready. Not because he needed to, of course. Just because he couldn’t eat them all on his own and Merle was trying to watch his sugar intake anyway so he really shouldn’t leave them lying around.

Taako walked back over to the linen closet and looked through his apron selection. He swapped out his old one for a lavender apron with frilled edges that went well with the rest of his outfit and tied a neat bow behind his back. He walked over to his mirror and reapplied disguise self, closely examining his face to make sure it was satisfactory. He took a bit of flour in his hand and swiped a single smudge on his left cheek to make it look natural. Perfect. Effortless.

He smiled at himself but it didn’t reach his eyes, which was strange because he was totally fine. 

Taako walked back out into the kitchen and sliced the bars, carefully arranging them on a serving tray. He picked the tray up and took a step toward the door, then thought better of it and placed it back on the island. He grabbed an orange and zested it over the plate. The trick to a good lemon bar was to add... To add... The trick was... The…

The orange hit the floor with a dull thud and Taako stumbled back, crashing into the counter behind him knocking a ceramic pot onto the floor, where it shattered and cracked the tile in a single move. Taako didn’t see any of this as he sunk to the ground, head in hands.


	3. Chapter 3

Suddenly he was eleven years old and hungry.

He and Lup had been practicing mage hand all week and finally felt ready to put it to the test. The plan was for Lup to distract a cart owner while Taako reappropriated some of his stock from a distance so it could be redistributed to local children in need. The children in this case being Lup and Taako, naturally. Taako got the easy job since he was slightly better at the cantrip than Lup and as much as it pained her to admit it, she was more hungry than she was prideful at the moment. 

Taako crouched behind a cart and watched Lup walk up to the merchant and engage him in conversation. Lup was a frankly adorable and charming kid and she had already become a master swindler so within a few seconds, the merchant’s attention was fully occupied and Taako was able to cast mage hand and begin slowly grabbing one item at a time from the cart and bringing them over to his bag. Unfortunately, after only two rounds, Taako heard a voice cry out “HEY” and footsteps start running towards him. He looked back. Shit. The merchant’s son. 

Taako ran. Grabbing his bag, he took off through the crowds, dodging his way around carts and people and stalls. Eventually, he ducked into an alleyway and waited in the shadows, listening for footsteps but only hearing his own heartbeat. He turned to look at Lup but she wasn’t with him.

Had she seen him run? Had he even thought to call out and warn her? Taako scrambled to his feet and back out into the crowds. 

“Lup?” it was getting dark. He retraced his steps and circled the perimeter of the marketplace, scanning for her face. “Lup, where are you?”

He glanced nervously around corners, walking directionless and aimless for what felt like hours while he bit back the feeling of panic that was starting to settle in. Was she hurt? Did something happen? People in this area were generally not kind to thieves, even if those thieves were just kids. 

When Taako finally did find her, night had fallen and she was sitting against a storefront looking just as panicked as he felt. “Lup!” He rushed forward and fell to his knees, pulling his sister into a hug. “Are you okay? Holy shit, are you okay?”

“Taako! What happened? Where did you go? You—you left. I looked for you but you were gone”

“I’m sorry, I freaked out, I—are you okay?” He pulled away from her hug and held her at arm's length, looking her up and down. Something felt off. “Did you get hurt? What happened?” 

“It’s okay, it’s nothing.”

“What’s nothing?”

“When I saw you run I tried to follow you but someone grabbed my arm and I tripped. I got away but I think I hurt myself when I fell.” She looked down at her ankle, which was swollen and purple. It was sprained at a minimum. Maybe broken. Taako’s stomach flipped. He didn’t know any healing spells to fix this and it was going to be awful to walk around on. This was his fault. Lup was hurt and it was his fault. He stared at her ankle for a few minutes, unsure of what to say. Finally, he landed on “How did you get away?” 

“Remember when we found that cantrip scroll last year?” She flashed a humorless grin, “Fire Bolt. Then I ran but I didn’t know where you went and I couldn’t move very fast so I just hid until they packed up and left.”

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have left you alone.” 

“It’s okay.” She shrugged but didn’t look at him “Did you get anything good?” 

“Oh, yeah.” He reached into his bag and produced two oranges “Sorry I didn’t get anything more filling.” He held them up to examine them and handed her the larger of the two. She smiled at him and took it, pushing her thumbs into the skin and letting a wave of citrus scent penetrate the air “Next time you can be the distraction.”


	4. Chapter 4

Taako returned to the present feeling sick. He remembered now. Lup had been in pain for days until they finally found a cleric who was willing to heal her ankle. And it was his fault. He had caused that because, in a single moment of panic, he had forgotten about her. And he had sworn to himself that it wouldn’t happen again. But it had and he’d had no control over it and... Fuck. Okay. Okay fuck okay. Shit, don’t think about it. It’s okay. You’re okay. It already happened and you can’t change it so just don’t think about it, okay? Fuck. FUCK. 

Butter. Sugar. Flour. FUCK. 

Wait, was he bleeding? He looked down at his hand. Fuck, he was bleeding. Why was he bleeding? He glanced around the kitchen and his eyes fell on the shattered ceramic and the cracked tile. That would explain it.

He couldn’t remember if this place had a security deposit and had a moment where he very much hoped it did not. He pulled himself to his feet and walked over to the island. As he did, his foot knocked against something and he glanced down at the orange. Fuck that. Taako kicked the offending fruit across the room, snatched the lemon bar tray up, and half-ran out of the kitchen, not stopping until he was outside in the fresh air. Or, as fresh as air could get on the moonbase. 

Okay, cool. Take a deep breath or two. Time to find some people to share these goddamn lemon bars with.

He paused for a moment and broke a corner off of one of the bars and popped it into his mouth just to be safe. Anything wrong with them? No, they were fine. He walked toward the general living quarters where he, Magnus, and Merle had lived before moving to their apartment. Closing the distance briskly with some long strides, he came to the door just as Carey and Killian were leaving

“Hey, guys!” He gave a quick wave and flashed a wide grin, “Lemon bars?”

“Hell yeah!” Killian said, immediately reaching for one, “Thought you guys were all off base today for dinner” Carey shot her girlfriend a look while Taako pretended not to notice. 

“I mean yeah, everyone else is out but I had all of these lemons that just _had_ to get used before they went bad and it’s already such a pain to get fresh produce on the moon, ya know?”

“That makes sense,” Carey chimed in, helpfully. They all stood in an uncomfortable silence for a moment. 

“So, uh, you two look nice, where are you headed?”

“We’re going planetside for dinner. You’re, uh, you’re welcome to join us if you want?” Killian offered. Taako glanced at Carey and saw a panicked expression wash over her face. 

“What day is it today?” He asked

“Friday.”

Shit. Friday. Magnus had mentioned something about Carey and Killian’s _big Friday plans_. Taako couldn’t remember Magnus mentioning exactly what those big plans were but he was definitely supposed to glean something from all of the winks and nudging.

“Friday, huh? No can do, compadre. I reserve Friday nights for washing my hair”

“Your… hair?”

“You think it stays this luxurious without a little TLC? Gotta make sure it’s looking fresh for the weekend, my dude. Gotta keep it glossy for the fans. You two crazy kids have fun though, okay? Enjoy the planet, or whatever.” He flashed a wide smile and swore he saw Carey breathe a sigh of relief. He handed them each another lemon bar (“one for the road”) and walked past them into the dorms. 

It was eerily empty inside. Taako hadn’t realized how many people had packed up and gone home already. He’d been so busy getting his life back together that he forgot that a lot of the people here were leaving. All that was left were those who had decided to stay to join the Bureau of Benevolence and stragglers who were still getting their things packed up.

Taako paced down the halls, passing out lemon bars to the occasional passerby and checking in on a few rooms of people who had names he could remember. (A shockingly low amount. Taako realized he only knew about eight people who were in the B.O.B other than the Tres Horny Boys).

Eventually, Taako came to Angus’s room. He had never had cause to come to this room before but the hand made sign on the door that had “Angus McDonald, World’s Greatest Detective” written across it in careful handwriting was something of a giveaway. Taako gave a short knock and waited for a few moments before the door opened with a small gasp.

“Hello, sir!” the excitement on his face faded to confusion, then concern. “What are you doing here? Is something wrong?”

“No, no, listen. I was in the neighborhood, so to speak, and I have these lemon bars and I thought I’d swing by and see if you had any interest in trying one.” 

“I’d love one!” Angus beamed. Taako wondered when the last time the kid had eaten something homemade was. “Would you like to come in? I can make you some tea! I don’t have a kettle but I learned a new spell that can heat up water in a teacup really well!”

“Sure thing!” Taako followed Angus into the room. It was small—it was a dorm so that made sense—but Angus had the place to himself, which made it seem much more spacious than when Taako had shared a room with Merle, Magnus, and Robbie. “Own room, huh? How’d you swing that one?”

“Oh! Well, there aren’t any other kids on the moon and none of the adults felt comfortable sharing a room with a little boy. I’m eleven,” he clarified, pulling a desk chair away from the wall for Taako to sit on. Angus walked back over toward the door, where there was a neat stack of boxes Taako hadn’t noticed when he’d first come in. Angus dug through one and fished out two mugs and some tea bags. He filled them with water from a heavy looking jug and dunked a bag in each. Taako didn’t take his eyes off of the boxes. 

“Where are you going, little man? Relocating to a bigger room now that people are moving out or…?” Taako trailed off. He looked at Angus, who was heating the mugs of room temperature water with more focus than Taako had come to expect from him. When the water started steaming, Angus sighed.

“No, I’m… I’m moving out. I like it here and all but… there isn’t a lot of detective work for me to do now. There aren’t really many jobs for me at all, actually. I talked to the director about it,” Taako’s heart rate sped up hearing her mentioned, “and she keeps giving me little things to do and telling me they’ll have need for me once the Bureau of Benevolence is up and running but I think she’s just trying to be nice. There really isn’t anything for me. It’s time for me to move on to something else.” Angus handed Taako a colorful Caleb Cleaveland mug and climbed up into his bed, sitting cross-legged with a mug of his own in his lap. He looked so small.

“Where are you headed?” Taako took a large sip from his mug. Fuck. Hot. He spit it out. 

“Ah! Sorry, sir!” Angus started to hop up but Taako waved him back down. 

“It’s fine” He set the mug on the floor and carefully took off his apron, inspecting his lap and shirt to see if anything soaked through. Nope. It was a good thing he’d put an apron on, although now that it was off, the flour smudge on his face didn’t make sense with the rest of his outfit. He wiped that off with the back of his hand and dropped the apron to the floor before retrieving his mug. “Nice spell, by the way. You’ve definitely mastered the whole ‘heat water’ thing” Angus beamed at his teacher’s compliment.

“Thank you, sir! I still have a lot to learn, though.” They sat in a comfortable silence for a few moments while Angus munched on a lemon bar. Taako’s eyes drifted back over to the stack of boxes 

“Angus?”

“Yeah?”

“Where are you going?”

“To my grandpa’s” Angus didn't look up at Taako, carefully inspecting his lemon bar.

“Bullshit.”

“I’m sorry, sir?”

“Your grandpa is dead.” Maybe not the most tactful thing he'd ever said but whatever. It was true.

“His house is still there so I’m going to stop in to see it.”

“And then?”

“I’m enrolling in Lucas’s school.”

“He literally just made the decision to start a school last week." Taako pointed an accusing finger across the room at the kid. "That’s not going to be open for months at _least_. Where are you going?”

“I have a place to stay”

“Angus, don’t make me cast zone of truth on you”

“Do you even know that spell, sir?” Angus looked up to meet his gaze, raising an inquisitive eyebrow.

“I don’t- listen, I’m a wizard, okay? I’ve seen Merle do it enough times. I’m pretty sure I can figure it out if _Merle’s_ been throwing it around since he was level one. Anyway, let’s not find out, alright. Where are you going?”

“I…” Angus looked down at the mug he held in his lap and shifted uncomfortably. Taako couldn’t tell if the large mug and bed made Angus look comically tiny or if Angus being tiny made the mug and bed look comically large. He remembered Magnus saying that Ango was definitely small for his age. He’d also said that human children who take longer to grow often get very tall but Taako would believe that when he saw it.

“...I don’t really have a plan yet, sir. But I’ll be okay! I have a lot of gold saved up and there are a lot of mysteries to solve down planetside!” Taako wasn’t great at reading kids—possibly because typically he made a point of not interacting with any—so he couldn’t quite tell if the smile that had crossed Angus’s face was real or forced. 

“Angus, why—why haven’t you asked any of us?” 

“I don’t think anyone wants me to stay with them. I’m pretty perceptive. I know how people act when they don’t want you hanging around.”

Taako’s heart shattered. He remembered being eleven and unsure of where he was going to sleep that night. He remembered the orange and Lup and what can happen when no one is looking out for you. And he didn’t know what he would have done or how he would have survived without his sister. But Angus had no one. He was just a kid—a _smart_ kid—but a kid nonetheless. 

“Angus, I know we goof a lot but we all like you and we all like having you around— _I_ like having you around.” Taako stood from his chair and crossed the room to sit beside Angus. “Listen, I’m a really fucking good wizard and a really fucking good chef and a really fucking good adventurer. And I’m really fucking good at putting together an outfit. And killing people. Also I’m great at battlewagon racing and making a dramatic entrance and saving the universe, right?”

“This...feels like a weird time to list your accomplishments out to me but, yeah. You’re great at all of those things.” 

“Right! And for a really long time I thought I was great at those things because I kept myself safe by staying away from everyone else. I figured my problems were mine to deal with and everyone else could deal with their own shit and that’s why I was so great at everything I did. But now that we’re done with all of this, I found out that I’m great at everything because of the bonds I’ve made with other people. It’s let me learn a lot and grow and recover from mistakes. And now I’ve realized that I’m not better than other people because I work alone. I’m better than other people because I let them work with me. Do you see what I’m saying?”

“I think so?”

“Okay,” Taako sighed, “Let’s try this. I’m great at a lot. But I’m… maybe slightly less great at things like letting people help me on the rare occasion when I do need it. And maybe if I’d had more help when I was younger, I’d be better at trusting other people to help me now. I don’t want you to feel like you can’t ask for help or feel like we’re—like _I’m_ —not here to support you when you need it. I know how bouncing around from place to place goes. And I know it’s not great. So let me help.”

“I’m still not sure I completely follow what you want to do here, sir.”

'“Oh come on, Angus, that's not very 'world’s greatest detective' of you. I want you to come live with me. It’s time for me to get off of this moonbase. You’re going to need a permanent address for Lucas to send all of the nerd awards you’re going to be winning and it’ll give you somewhere to go for holidays and breaks and you won’t have to worry about where you’re going to end up and I won’t have to worry about what kind of trouble you’re getting into.” Taako shifted his eyes around the room, then down at his shoes, then over to the opposite wall, unsure of where to look “If you want to, or whatever.” He snuck a glance at Angus.

“Sir, I-” His eyes filled with tears.

“What are you doing? What is that?” Taako asked, panicked. Oh god, was he going to cry? Taako wasn’t good with other people crying. He never knew if you were supposed to say something or touch their shoulder or pretend not to notice or—Taako’s train of thought was interrupted as Angus threw his arms around him. “Oh! I- okay. Okay this is fine, you can do that, I guess.”

“Thank you,” Angus sniffled. After a moment of uncertainty, Taako wrapped his arms around him in return. 

“Of course.”


	5. Chapter 5

Within two weeks, Taako was moving into a very nice and very spacious new home. Turns out it’s not hard to find real estate when the entire world and beyond know you stopped a tireless evil force from destroying life as they know it. Being a legend had its perks.

The house had a big kitchen with vaulted ceilings and more bedrooms and bathrooms than an elf and a boy detective really needed but Taako was typically “go big or go home” about most things (or, in this case, go big _and_ go home).

“I can’t believe you have a kid now, Taako,” Lup teased, pulling plates out of a box and stacking them neatly in a cupboard.

“I don’t ‘have a kid’ I have a—Barry for the love of _god_ do not put that mixer under the sink, are you an _animal_ —I have a…a ward? A very small roommate?”

“A personal detective!” Angus added, helpfully.

“You know, I could have taken you in, Ango,” Magnus said for the fiftieth time since Taako had announced that Angus was going to be living with him. He set a heavy looking box down on the counter, “If you ever want to come live with me instead, just say the word. I’ll get you a dog.”

“Hey stop trying to poach my detective! You snooze, you lose!” Taako threw a spatula at Magnus.

“The offer stands, Ango,” Magnus laughed, dodging out of the way. “Carey, Killian! Come help me carry the table and chairs in? Merle is coming by with food in a few minutes and I want to set up somewhere for us to sit!” 

“Yeah, sure thing. I do kinda feel like the wizards here could be doing the heavy lifting, though. Don’t you guys have spells for this?” Killian asked as she followed Magnus out.

“Spell slots!” Taako and Lup called after her in unison. 

A few moments later, Magnus and Killian had hauled in the large handmade kitchen table Magnus had crafted as a moving present (“Solid oak! This thing is going to last you years!”) and Merle came in weighed down with a stack of takeout boxes that came up to just above his height. The group gathered around the table as a rift opened and Kravitz stepped through with a few bottles of wine. He gave Taako a peck on the cheek in greeting and waved around at everyone with a shy grin. 

As the conversation flowed and the group bickered and joked and traded stories, Taako felt an odd sense of peace that he hadn’t known in god knows how long. They had made it. They had all made it. He settled back in his chair, looked around at his found family and surrendered himself to the peace he knew the future would bring.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's all, folks! I had a lot of fun writing this so thank you for reading it! I hope you enjoyed :)


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